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Wasmaxna
General information Wasmaxna is a bit of a homage to three languages I have learned by mixing them in a creative way, Japanese, Hebrew, and Chickasaw. The core grammar is Chickasaw (VSO), with the verbs having prefixes for the alignment roles and conjugated to tense, aspect, and mood. Verbs are on a root system like Hebrew, which get filled in with different vowels and sometimes adding a suffix to conjugate. Things like relative clauses and case-tags work like Japanese. All modifiers, including relative clauses, go before the noun ("The big train, which I saw" => "The seen-by-me big train"). I have got a basic structure, but it's still a work-in-progress. Phonology Consonants S, N, H, C (ch), X (sh), P, R (lh), W, M, F, L, Y, B, T, K Vowels A (Ah), O (Oh), E (Eh), I (Ii), U (Oo) Alphabet Phonotactics Grammar Verbs are formed by 4-letter-roots, conjugated by time & form into templates, like Hebrew. (That is, you fill in different vowels to conjugate the root.) The verbs also have prefixes to add Subject & Object operators, like Chickasaw. The rest of the sentence adds phrases to fill the operator slots as well as other roles not in the verb, with tags at the end of the phrase for their role (a subject market, an object marker, direct object, and participles that work sort of like markers for objects of the prepositions, a bit like Japanese's use of "ha", "ga", "wo", etc.) Basic example: John gave the book to Mary. Wasmaxna form: He-it-gave John subj book obj Mary to. Verb Prefixes: I male single subject: Ya Me male single object: Fa I female single subject Na Me female single object Sa I neuter single subject Ka Me neuter single object Ta You male single subject: Yo You male single object: Fo You female single subject: No You female single object: So You neuter single subject: Ko You neuter single object: To He single subject: I '''Yi Him single object: '''Fi She single subject: Ni Her single object: Si It single subject: Ki It single object: Ti We male plural subject: Yax Us male plural object: Fax We female plural subject: Nax Us female plural object: Sax We neuter plural subject: Kax Us neuter plural object: Tax Y’all male plural subject: Yox Y’all male plural object: Fox Y’all female plural subject: Nox Y’all female plural object: Sox Y’all neuter plural subject: Kox Y’all neuter plural object: Tox They male plural: Ix Yix Them male plural object: Fix They female plural: Nix Them female plural object: Six They neuter plural: Kix Them neuter plural object: Tix Honorific plural subject: Bax Honorific plural object: Bix Verb Forms: Example Root: X-L-M-P (to deceive) Present simple: o:i Infinitive (to) form: a:a-fis Future simple: i:a Xolmip Xalmap-fis Xilmap (indicative) Past simple: u:e Present progressive: o:i-bit Past progressive: u:e-bit Xulmep Xolmip-bit Xulmep-bit Future progressive: i:a-bit Xolmap-bit Present perfect: o:i-pax Past perfect: u:e-pax Future Perfect: i:a-pax Xolmip-pax xulmep-pax xilmap-pax Subjunctive (if): a:a-lu Negative: -lai Imperative: a:a-halos Xalmap-lu -lal xalmap-halos Interrogative?: reflexive: -kal -yalos Subjunctive (may) a:a-nofo Xalmap-nofo Subjunctive (must) a:a-pawo Xalmap-pawo Gerend (reify the action): o.u.o. Xolumop (i.e., deceiving) If a word ends in a vowel, a selected final (silent) consonant should follow it: H for ah W for oh Y for ii oo and eh cannot be final vowels Ideas - “Let’s __” form? Xilmap-yaxha Xalmap-yaxha Subjects, Direct Objects, Indirect Objects, etc, get tagged with marker post-words (like the “et” in Hebrew for objects, or the “ga” in Japanese for subjects), as well as certain tags to set-off phrases; again, post-phrase tags (like “ni” in Japanese for to, “to” for quotes, etc). The sentence can also end with marker-words tagging the type of sentence (like “ka” in Japanese for questions). Case (suffix) markers for nouns: Subject/nominative: -'ma' Copula complement tag: '-sa' Direct object/accusitive: -'ca ' Indirect object/dative (objects of prepositions): -'ko kot' Passive/Ablative: -'wa '(done by X) Ideational/vocative: -'bo bot '(behold the …) Plural: End with: P “ep” Definite: Add “e” to make it definite (“the”): mae, cae, koe, te’e, wae, boe Plural: mape, cape, kope, tepe, wape, bope Possessive like ‘s: -'te' Personal possessive suffix (m/f): My: teya / tena Your: teyo / teno His / her / its: teyi / teni / teki Their: teyix, tenix, tekix Our: teyax, tenax Whose: krote To: Fi ''' For: '''Nu That phrase: xu In: Pohu On: Many sentences don’t need extra words because the sense is captured in the verb itself (e.g., he-her-saw). You don’t need extra words for “he” and “she” tagged with subject & object marker-words because they are captured in the verb. So just saying the verb completes the sentence. (However you can put the tagged words “he” and “she” in if you like, possibly for emphasis.) But if you want to say “John saw Jane”, then you would say “he-her-saw John subj. Jane obj.” Because the roles are tagged, like Japanese you can switch them around and put the object first and subject second, e.g., for emphasis, as in “he-her-saw Jane obj John subj” to answer the question “he-it-saw what obj John subj question.” He sees her: Yafisoplil. John sees Jane: “Yafisoplil Can ma Cen ca.” John gave Jane the book. “Yafihuxcey Can ma Cen ca hicane koe.” John gave the book to Jane. “Yafihuxcey Can ma Cen fi hicane koe.” Other pronouns (correlatives) Query This That Some No Every ' ' Adj (which) (this) (that) (some) (no) (every) kul hiul xul Paxepe tayo sowa Fecle nonoxowe ' '(that there) any: xayi aul ' ' Person (who) (this one) (that one) (someone) (no one) (everyone) Krofe hrofe xrofe tayorofe Feclerofe nonorofe ' '(that there) ' '''aulrofe ' ' '''Thing' (what) (this) (that) (something) (nothing) (everything) kul hiul xul tayokul feclekul nonokul ' '(that there) aul ' ' Place (where) (here) (there) (someplace) (nowhere) (everywhere) kixi Hixi xuxi Cene tayokixi feclekixi nonokixi ' '(over there) ' '''aulxi ' ' '''Time' (when) (now) (then) (sometime) (never) (always) kok hiok xuok tayokok feclekok nonokok ' ' Way (how) (thus) (somehow) Xecuha hixecuha tayoxecuha ' ' Reason(why) (because this) (because that) Kulfi hinufi xulnufi Counting 1 to 10 Ten-five Two-ten-five Three-hundred two-ten five … Adjectives Modifiers go before the noun. It is absolute head-final like Japanese & Turkish. This goes for modifying relative clauses also, as described below. -er (more): X Adj-ce more than Y. X ADJ-cehaya Y-ra. -est (most): X most. X ADJ-maxufi As … As: (hixe) X ADJ nemuselo hixe Y-li. X adj compares as to Y, (Nemuselo) Opposite (un-) Xax- Lack (-less) (hocuno) Hocu- surfeit (-ful) possibility (-able) liking (-phile) disliking (-phobe) inhabitant (-er, -ian, -an, -ese) weakening meaning (-ish) strengthening meaning (uber-) adverb (-ly) Convert adjective to noun (-ness) Head-final (place all modifiers before, head-noun is last) The ten very happy bar-exam passed robots 10xina – very – Mayeha(happy) Bar-exam Kix-LuSHeS robot-bope. Relative prepositional phrase (whom, which, that…): Try similar to Japanese. Again, like the head-final adjectives, relative phrases will be placed in front of the head-noun or phrase to describe it, as if adjectives (as the happy robots example shows). When the relative clause uses a new verb, the slot of the noun getting modified is replaced with an interrogative word to designate its grammatical role for that verb. So for example, for the sentence "The train, which I saw, was running.", we want to say something like "the seen-by-me train was running". The head verb is "was running" with TRAIN is in the subject slot. But the train is also in the object-slot of the modifying relative clause ("I saw it"). To communicate it being in this object slot, we do a similar trick as English. We substitute the prefix slot of the train with "WHAT". So instead of saying "I-it-SAW" like a normal verb, we say "I-what-SAW". For Wasmaxna, we start with the head verb, with the prefix slots for the roles It-it-RUN-past-progressive. The next word will be the verb for the relative clause, with WHAT in the slot for the modified noun, here the TRAIN. I-what-SAW. Then finally we have the modified noun, TRAIN. Then after that we put the tag for a subject (since TRAIN is a subject of the head noun RUN). If we had another adjective, like BIG, we'd put that just before the TRAIN after the relative clause. So "The big train, which I saw" would be "I-what-SAW BIG TRAIN tag". "Yakul-suplel hiceka liya mae". "To see" is SPLL. We add u-e vowels to make it past. It gets two prefixes, a male-subject-first-person "Ya" for I, and "kul" in the object slot for "what" (the noun we are modifying). The TRAIN is "liya", and it takes the subject tag "ma", which applies to the head verb (RUN, not in this phrase), NOT the object tag "ca" for "to see". The TRAIN is both a subject & object of two verbs. The way we know the TRAIN is the object of the 2nd verb, to see, is because of the "What" (kul) put in its object slot, and then the train (liya) fills that spot. Hiceka means "big", to show that adjectives go after modifying relative clauses. If we wanted to make a full sentence out of it, "The big train which I saw was running", we'd add the head verb "It was running" verb at the front. "To go" is the root YCHW. We add u-e vowels for past tense (yuchew), then "bit" to make it progressive. It takes the "ki" prefix for the subject (neuter, the TRAIN). Ki-yuchew-bit yakul-suplel hiceka liya mae. Other Examples: The man John hit yesterday prefers beer to wine. He-it-PREFERS he-who-HIT JOHN marker yesterday MAN marker BEER marker WINE OVER marker). Yi-ti-conwip yi-kro-nepyum Can ma pohepewo yubyu mae molewe cae uina nenos. The girl you think I love is absent. she-it-IS you-THINK THAT I-who-LOVE GIRL marker ABSENT marker. The neighbor whose son I teased wants to see you. he-it-WANTS I-him-TEASED WHOSE SON marker NEIGHBOR marker him-you-SEE-infinitive. The cat I said Alison brought home is stuck now in the tree. it-it-IS I-it-SAID THAT she-who-BROUGHT ALISON marker Home To CAT marker NOW TREE Object-definite STUCK copula. The man that plowed my field is coming over here. He-COMING who-it-PLOWED FIELD object-my MAN subject HERE TO. "The big train, which I saw, was going fast." GOING I-what-SAW BIG TRAIN subject-definite fast Ki-kuybexbit kikul-suplel hiceka liya mae babate. …………………………………… Adjectives / Adverbs Adjectives and adverbs directly follow their target words. need to follow gender or number Question Words What – kul That - xul This - When – kok Then - xuok Now - Where – kixi There - xixi Here - Why – To-what – kulfi Because To-that - xulfi Prepositional Phrases (which, who/m) “That” phrases Quoting phrases “When” phrases '“If” Phrases ' Vocabulary I have a 70 page dictionary so far. I'm trying to get it online a bit at a time. (Google Docs/Drive is fiddly.) Here is the link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d9kp5TcbN2yq4AjMP_j_2hF4Oz_UN9DU5QyjcJfdkVo/edit Example text I'm in the process of translating Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self Reliance" in the language to develop it. I will try to upload it here periodically: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kHjZWkfKPD4lGn1_op0j7h9preCsCn3uDlGNk7I-leY/edit Category:Languages